Monday, July 30, 2007

Last week Katherine and Sebastian had the opportunity to play with their cousin, Maya Brown. Jaime (Wes' sister) and Maya were in Hugo visiting with Ruby Lee (Wes' grandmother) and Cynthia (Wes' mom). Sara Posthuma (Wes' aunt) had also come for a visit. We had everyone over last Monday evening for dinner and some family visiting time. We enjoyed watching the kids play together; grilled hamburgers with all the fixings; swam in the pool; and topped the night off with homemade peach ice cream. It was a very nice time.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Saturday began early with our church having a men's breakfast. Otis Cayton, a former pastor of Trinity and the association's current Director of Missions, gave a short devotion while the men enjoyed their breakfast.

Around 9 AM the Watermelon Festival parade got underway. The parade ended at the Valliant Park and people began pouring into the park for the festival. It was amazing the see that amount of people coming in and our church booth was near one of the entrances. We knew it wouldn't be a problem to give away all our fans. The fans were gone by 1 PM! More people would walk over to receive a fan and and then realized they could register to win a digital camera. At the end of the afternoon, approximately 200 people had registered for the digital camera and all the fans were gone! The camera giveaway was drawn during the gospel concert Saturday night, and a 10 year old girl from nearby Millerton, Oklahoma, won.

One of the goals for our church during this weekend was to show our community that we are here for them. I believe we accomplished that goal. We were also looking for new contacts. There were between 40-50 people who admitted on the registration form that they didn't attend a church regularly, so that gives our church a good starting point.

Several months ago, Wes begin thinking of what our church could do to minister to our community during the festival. We came up with an idea to give away bottles of water throughout the festival. We found last week that because there would be vendors selling water we could not give away free water as the Valliant Chamber of Commerce didn't think that would be fair to the vendors. We came up with a plan B. Plan B is to give away free fans. These fans have information about our church printed on both sides. Last Wednesday night several church members put together 250 fans. We are also giving away a free digital camera at the end of the festival. On the registration form is a question asking the person whether or not they attend a church. If the answer is "yes" then after the drawing those forms will be thrown out, but those marked "no" will be used as prospects for our church.

The kids and I dropped by the Valliant City Park where the Watermelon Festival is being held this afternoon and evening. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground with some of their friends. Katherine had a watermelon painted on her check. This festival is a good family event. I am proud our church is there to show the people who will come through the park over the next 24 hours we love and care for our community.